Page 32 of Justice for Daesha

“Then I need this photo. I’ll see if the forensics lab can blow it up so we can clearly see the ring, and then we can start looking. But I promise, I’ll get this picture back to you in the same condition it’s in now, okay?” She nodded again. “So we may have just found a new piece of evidence.”

“I hope so.” Daesha sat back in the softness of the sofa and sighed. “It’s about time.”

“I think so too.” He dropped back beside her and pulled her against him, his arm around her shoulder. “So where am I going tomorrow night?”

“It’s a place in Louisville called the Chesterfield. It’s like a bourbon bar or something.”

“Bourbon! That sounds pretty damn awesome.” Amos was thrilled. He could hear his girlfriend sing and have bourbon too. How much better could a night be?

His girlfriend.Holy shit, I’ve got a girlfriend!his brain crowed. A girlfriend for AmosFletcher. What was the world coming to? The thought made him laugh, and he must’ve laughed just a little out loud because Daesha asked, “What’s so funny?”

“I just realized that I can tell people I have a girlfriend.” He laughed again.

“Why is that funny?”

“Because I’m almost forty and I’ve never had a girlfriend before.”

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “You’re so silly.” He started to say something, but she interrupted him with, “Oh, and by the way, thanks for taking care of Ivory this morning. I was shocked when I got home and found her in the back pasture. I was afraid she’d spend all day in the barn.”

“Nope. That’s where you said you wanted her, so that’s where I put her. After I fed her, of course,” he added.

“Grain?”

“Uh… Was I supposed to give her grain?”

It was Daesha’s turn to laugh. “I’ll show you. You couldn’t have known, and you wouldn’t know how much to feed her.”

“Whew! I thought I’d really screwed up,” Amos said and pantomimed wiping his brow.

“Nah. It’s not like she’s going to starve. I had that pasture disked and planted with fescue before I ever put her out there. The grass is in good shape.”

“Good. She’s probably mad at me now,” he said and chuckled.

Daesha laughed at him. “I dunno about that, but I’m sure you’re not her favorite person.”

He kissed her forehead and gave her a squeeze. “So I’ll go in here and clean up the mess from the pie if you want to get ready for bed.”

“You need to get ready for bed too, don’t you?”

“Nope. Already did that. All I’ll need to do is brush my teeth. You run along. Scoot!” He made a shooing motion, and she hopped up and headed down the hallway.

It only took him a minute or two to clean up the kitchen, and then he made his way to the bedroom with two bottles of water. Once he’d set them down, he went to the hallway bathroom, brushed his teeth, and went back to the bed. She was already there, sitting up and resting back against the pillows, and the smile she gave him when she walked in lit up the entire room. “Hey, handsome,” she purred, “got a girlfriend?”

“Matter of fact, I have, but I can cheat on her with you,” he answered with a snicker and climbed into bed with her. “God, I missed you today,” he whispered and kissed her. In seconds, they were both under the covers, kissing and touching and almost panting.

AmosFletcher was in heaven. She was the girl of his dreams, and she was in his arms. How lucky could one man be?

* * *

She tookhim out to the barn the next morning before she left for work and showed him the big old can she kept in the grain. “Fill it up and pour it in the bucket. Plus put the hay in the net. She’ll love you forever,” she told him as they walked out of the barn.

As soon as she left, he had his morning run. Luckily, he didn’t run into Matt that morning or he might’ve given the guy a good smacking around. He called the office on his way and let them know he was going to the forensics lab first. His hope was that by getting it there early, one of their forensics experts would get right on it.

He hadn’t been in the office for ten minutes when his email pinged, and he opened it to find a huge picture of the ring. And he was stunned.

It was definitely a logo of some kind. There were some swoopy things, and something that looked a little like a cross, and more shapes. Amos couldn’t tell what the hell it was supposed to be. There was something included in it, incorporated in it, but he couldn’t figure out what. Then another text came in.

BTW, FWIW, there’s a mark on the side of the ring. That’s from the artist. It’s personal. Kind of like a signature. Find the artist and you’ll find out who commissioned the ring.

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